Excursion Managers.-Throughout Northwest to Yellowstone Park-W. D. Parker, River Falls, Wis.; To Oregon, William A. Mowry, Providence, R. I.; To California, Rev. A. E. Winship, Boston, Mass.; To Colorado, Aaron Gove, Denver, Col.; To Alaska, Rev. Sheldon Jackson, care Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.

Book Notices.

THE BRITISH POETS: Riverside Edition. A Complete Collection of the Poems of the best English Poets from Chaucer to Wordsworth, embracing all the Poems of the most distinguished Authors, with Selections from the Minor Poets; with Historical and Critical Notices, edited by Professor Francis J. Child, of Harvard University, Assisted by James Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton and Arthur Gilman. A Handsome Library Edition, printed on tinted paper and tastefully bound. 68 volumes, crown 8vo., gilt top. Price per volume, in cloth, $1.75; in half calf, $3.50; the set in cloth, $100. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

No library could lay claim to any considerable degree of completeness that did not contain in larger or smaller measure the works of the British Poets. This edition of sixty-eight volumes, a library in itself, presents some features that render it especially desirable. It contains the writings not only of the great poets, but also of those of less rank and celebrity who are clearly entitled to a place in a collection that attempts to show the entire wealth and variety of British poetry. It is thus a peculiarly rich and diversified repository of poetical literature, and affords the amplest means for the study of the historical development of British poetry and its distinctive characteristics in different centuries and under the dissimilar political, social, intellectual and religious conditions which prevailed during the five centuries from Chaucer to Wordsworth. The four volumes of Ballads, edited with the greatest care by Professor Child, add much to the completeness and variety of the collection.

Another feature is the excellent editorial care which has been bestowed on it. Great pains have been taken in making the selection, in securing an accurate text, and in supplying such notes as are necessary to make the obscure allusions and the dialectic words and phrases clear to the reader. The name of Professor Child is ample guarantee of the excellence of this department; yet further assurance, if such were needed, would be found in his corps of assistants.

An important feature of this edition is the biograpical and critical element. A Memoir of the life, with a sketch of the times and contemporaries of each poet is prefixed to his works. Besides the Biographical and Critical Essays written by the editor and his coadjutors, it includes Rev. John Newton's Memoir of Cowper; Izaac Walton's Life of Donne; Mitford's Memoirs of Butler, Dryden, Falconer, Gray, Milton, Prior, Swift, and Young; Dr. Johnson's Life of Gay and of Tickell; Macauley's Life of Goldsmith; R. A. Wilmott's Life of George Herbert; Henry Roger's Memoir of Marvell; Goldsmith's Life of Parnell; Southey's Memoir of Watts; Rev. Alex. Dyce's Memoirs of Akenside, Collins, Pope, Shakespeare, Skelton; H. T. Tucherman's Memoir of Southey, &c.

The fine steel portraits which accompany many of the volumes add a pleasing feature, especially for those who are curious to know how authors look.

The volumes are crown octavo, a very desirable size, are carefully printed on tinted and calendered paper, and are amply and substantially bound in dark brown cloth, and have gilt tops; an elegant and tasteful edition in every respect.

The price, considering the costly elements that enter into the production of this

edition, is very reasonable. The works of each poet are sold separately, except where two or more poets are grouped together.

A COMPLETE ALGEBRA FOR HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES; Revised Edition, by A. Schuyler, LL.D., President Baldwin University, Author of Elements of Geometry, &c. Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., Cincinnati and New York. Sample copy, $1.

In preparing a revised edition of this popular text-book, the author has sought not only to preserve the approved characteristics of former editions, but to obviate unnecessary difficulties, remove obscurities, remedy defects, secure a natural grading of the problems, and supply such other features as experience in the use of the book has shown to be advisable. The book is elementary enough for beginners properly prepared for the study, but students not sufficiently mature or not well trained in arithmetic had better begin with a more elementary work. At the same time it is full enough to meet the wants of those intending to pursue the higher mathematics. It will doubtless receive the hearty endorsement of such teachers as need a work of its kind.

RAY'S NEW TEST EXAMPLES IN ARITHMETIC. By B. O. M. DEBECK, A. M. Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., Cincinnati and New York. Sample copy, 35

cents.

This volume contains 5,000 new test examples in arithmetic, carefully graded. It embraces all the subjects usually taught in arithmetic, and will, it is believed, furnish the necessary number and variety of exercises essential to successful instruction in the subject. It can be used with any series of arithmetics, and is published with answers and without them.

WENTWORTH & HILL'S EXAMINATION MANUALS-No. 1, Arithmetic ; No. 2, Algebra. Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co. 1884. Mailing price, 40 cents.

Each of these manuals consists of two parts; the first part contains one hundred and fifty one hour examination papers, the questions for which have been selected mainly from the English, French and German collections of problems; the second is a collection of recent examination papers actually set in various American and English institutions of learning. The examples seem to be well selected and carefully graded, and many of them, having received the endorsement of high institutions of learning, would seem to need no further commendation. We think the teacher would find them very useful either in testing the pupil's knowledge or in reviewing the subject.

THE ESSENTIALS OF LATIN GRAMMAR. By F. A. BLACKBURN. Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co. 1883. Mailing price, $1.10.

The object of this book is sufficiently indicated in its title. It is the result of classroom work successfully conducted by the author. Two objects have been kept in view, to make a book small enough, without omitting essentials, to be mastered by a beginner, and to arrange the principles of grammar contained in it as systematically as possible, thus making them easy to learn and easy to retain. All that is common to Latin and English (definitions of parts of speech, &c.,) has been omitted. The transition from our own to another language is difficult at best, and the tendency of the learner's mind is to think everything different. It is wise, we think, to give prominence to the points of agreement and show that learning a foreign language is essentially learning the particulars in which it differs from our own. Each page is

divided into two parts; the upper part contains, in coarser print, these portions of the grammar which must be absolutely mastered, and represents the smallest amount to which memorizing can be limited; the lower half, in smaller print, contains illustrations, explanations, and those limitations of grammatical principles which are the outgrowth of usage, and should be learned gradually in connection with the reading of some Latin author. The book does not claim to contain all that is needed to make a finished scholar, but what it contains needs only to be supplemented, not unlearned. A series of exercises specially adapted to the grammar is added to give the needed illustration and drill for the beginner.

A SYSTEM OF RHETORIC. By C. W. BARDEEN.
York: A. S. Barnes & Co. $1.50.

12mo. pp. cxl. 674. New

The author begins with Sentence-Making, which is to Rhetoric what carpentry or masonry is to architecture-not properly a part of it, but to be absolutely mastered, so that the architect's ideas may be carried out with promptness and precision. As preparatory to Rhetoric proper, this part of the work gives in concise form and with abundant illustrations the practical rules for exact expression that are in most frequent need even by experienced writers.

This "handicraft," so to speak, having been acquired, the student is ready to apply it according to the rules of the art. Where, first? In conversation. He is required to converse almost constantly, and he has already learned that it is sometimes difficult to converse well. Let him see that the rules of Rhetoric apply primarily to the every-day talk in which he is engaged, and Rhetoric becomes a real thing. Accordingly, the author begins with a fuller and more familiar treatment of Conversation than we have elsewhere found, in the course of which he develops and practically applies to the talk of the home, the play ground, and the class-room, those rhetorical principles that in other treatises are pointed out in connection with essays, orations, and poems.

That this makes these rules real, that it suggests their constant application and test, will be seen at a glance.

As all must talk, so nearly all must write letters of one kind or another, and the second part of the book is devoted to Letter-Writing. In itself this subject is treated with incisive directness and practical force, business letters receiving special atten

tion.

With the Essays arises a new necessity-of formal invention. The author clearly shows that a distinct part of what is often called "inspiration" in writing comes from hard labor under fixed rules here laid down; that this labor is indispensable even to respectable writing, and that without this labor no production is worthy to be called

an essay.

The Oration introduces a new feature—the oral delivery to an audience, with all the principles of articulation, emphasis, gesture, and other principles usually referred to Elocution as a distinct subject.

Finally comes the Poem, which is more briefly treated, but under which it was necessary to point out what is its essence, with the most important directions as to Rhythm.

Literary Notes.

-Dodd, Mead & Company announce for immediate publication a Students' Edition of "Rawlinson's Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World." It will be issued in five octavo volumes, and will be printed from the same plates as their regular edition, and will contain all the maps, plates, etc., of that edition, the only difference being in width of the margin and thickness of the paper.

They also announce a new story entitled "Carola," by Hesba Stretton.

—The new edition of “Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers,” is at last ready for publication. Parts one and two are ready for delivery, and the remaining ten parts will be published during the coming year. A vast amount of new material has been available for this revision. The new matter introduced will increase the work to double its former size.

-Two years ago the publishers of E. P. Roe's works determined upon the somewhat bold experiment of issuing a limited edition of his first story," Barriers Burned Away," at a price to compete with the cheap libraries. The result was an immediate sale of 87,000 of a twenty-cent edition. They now announce a similar edition of his third story, "Opening a Chestnut Burr," for which twenty illustrations have been designed. The price of the book will be twenty five cents, and the first impression 50,000 copies.

-General Loring, a well-known authority on Egyptian affairs, has written a book entitled "El Mahdi and the Soudan," which Dodd, Mead & Company will publish immediately.

-ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS, Pure and Applied, edited by Ormond Stone, Professor of Astronomy, University of Virginia, William M. Thornton, Professor of Engineering, University of Virginia. Terms: Six numbers, per annum, $2.00.

The mathematical magazine, whose title is given above, is the successor of the Analyst, which has been edited for the past ten years by Mr. J. E. Hendricks, and is now discontinued by him on account of impaired health.

Each number will con

In form, the Annals of Mathematics will be small quarto. tain at least twenty-four pages. These numbers will be issued at intervals of two months, beginning February 1, 1884.

Like the Analyst, the new journal is designed to be a medium of communication and publication for teachers and students of mathematics. The purpose of the editors will be to guide and encourage the study of mathematics, pure and applied, in all its branches; to stimulate independent mathematical investigation by offering prompt publication of its results; to report the more important advances in mathematical discovery; and to register the more valuable additions to mathematical literature.

The editors would, therefore, invite from teachers and students of mathematics, contributions of their original work; of such problems of real utility and interest as may be presented to them; of papers relating to the history and bibliography of mathematics; and of critical examinations and reviews of important mathematical treatises and text-books, both American and foreign.

Subscribers and contributors will please address Annals of Mathematics, University of Virginia, Va.

-A well-known firm of Architects, Palliser, Palliser & Co., of Bridgeport, Conn., are doing valuable service in its frequent publication of copiously illustrated works on building and architecture, which are not only moderate in price but in accordance with a constantly improving, popular, artistic taste. The new and original work on every description of modern Architectural Detail entitled Palliser's Useful Details, published at $3, perhaps meets the extensive and actual demand for practical designs better than any work ever issued on the subject of building, as a builder remote from a city, and who perforce of his situation, is his own architect, needs just such a book, giving, as it does every description of American constructive detail, of a good character in large and endless variety of such features as must be wrought into the small houses, stables, shops, etc., in whose construction nine-tenths of the mechanics and a large proportion of the Architects of this country find occupation. "Useful" Details they are properly called, and consists of forty plates-size of each 20x26 inches.

-LITERATURE FOR THE YOUNG.-The Literary News, which, for four years has given an exhaustive review of current literature, has now widened its scope of usefulness by adding a new department, devoted to Literature for the Young. This department is subdivided into three sections under the respective headings, "The Home and Town Library," "The Church and Sunday School Library," and "The School and Reference Library." Special care will be devoted to the Sunday School Department of tais supplement, which aims to be a competent and faithful guide to Librarians, Book Committees, Sunday School Superintendents, Clergymen, Teachers, and Parents. The editors are anxious to have suggestions and practical hints from those who have distinguished themselves in the planning and arranging of School and Sunday School Libraries.

Published by F. Leypoldt, 31 and 32 Park Row, New York.

The Magazines.

THE SOUTHERN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PAPERS for March.-Contents: Last Telegrams of the Confederacy-Correspondence of Gen. J. C. Breckinridge; Memoir of Gen. J. B. Magruder, Gen. A. L. Long; Within a Stone's Throw of Independence at Gettysburg; How they made S. CHowl'-Letter from one of "Sherman's Bummers;" Story of the Arkansas, Geo. W. Gift, No. 2; Operations before Petersburg, May 6-11, 1864-Report of Gen. J. Hagood; Report of Col. R. F. Graham; A Morning Call on Gen. Kirkpatrick, E. L. Wells; Sabine Pass:-Federal Acconnt, President Davis's Account, Capt. Odlum's Official Report, Com L. Smith's Report, Gen. Magruder's Order, Newspaper Account; Letters from Fort Sumpter, Lieut. I. E. Jones; Editorial Paragraphs; Literary Notes.

THE AMERICAN NATURALIST for March.-Contents: The Crab Parasite, Sacculina, [Illustrated]: Men Ignorant of Fire; Grave Mounds in North Carolina and East Tennessee, [Illustrated]; Colonial Organisms; Anatomy and Phisiology of the Family Nepidae; The Creodonta, [Illustrated]; E. D. Cope; Editor's Table; Recent Literature; General Notes:-Geography and Travels, Geology and Paleontology, Botany, Entomology, Zoology, Psychology, Anthropology, Microscopy and Histology; Proceedings of Scientific Societies.

EDUCATION for March-April.-Contents: Frontispiece, Hon. Wendell Phillips; The Nation, the only Patron of Education Equal to the Emergency, Gen. John Eaton; Application of Principles of Psychology to the Work of Teaching. J. E. Brodlie, Ph. D.; Rights of Children, Mrs. E. C. Bascom; Industrial Education, and Industrial Drawing as one of its elements, S. E. Warren, C. E.; The Origin of the First German Universities, G. G. Bush, Ph. D.; The Teaching of Drawing in Grammar Schools, W. 8. Perry; Duties of School Superintendents, J. T. Prince, A. M.; What Moral Results Should Common School Training Give? W. N. Hailman, A. M.; Co-Education, Hon. H. S. Tarbell; Normal Schools, Report of Committee to National Council of Education, D. B. Hagar, Ph. D., Chairman; Foreign Notes.